Description

Mare Balticum - the Board Game© is a board game about production, trade and war around the Baltic Sea. The players take on the roles of noble lines during the Swedish Empire Era. Together, they will populate the kingdom, build ships for overseas trade, build armies for overseas war and build forts for defending the gains. Instead of fighting each other, they will have to fight the enemies around the Baltic Sea, competing for the same provinces. However, the best for the kingdom is not necessarily the best for your noble line. You have to decide what benefits you most: production or trade, consolidation or expansion, war or peace. But will your objectives coincide with your opponents' objectives? Beware, if you fight internally, your external enemies will conquer the entire kingdom and put an end to both the Swedish Empire Era and the game!

Game mechanisms include

1. Player balance: The players have a limited number of units, preventing one from growing too strong.
2. Game balance: The rate that the enemies grow is related both to the number of players and to their current strength, preventing them from getting too strong or too weak.
3. Production vs Trade vs War balance: The players may choose different strategies for growing and one strategy chosen will bring negative effects to the other strategies.
4. Cooperation: The players build fleets, armies and forts together and they also fight battles together.
5. Prisoners' dilemma. One player may benefit by not cooperating but if all do so, all will lose.